Integrated circuits (ICs) are commonly fabricated on wafers of semiconductor substrates; each wafer may contain hundreds to thousands of ICs, separated from each other by spaces known as scribelines or saw streets. Individual ICs are separated from neighboring ICs by processes which cut or break through the scribelines, such as wafer sawing, laser ablation scribing or damage creating laser scribing. These separation processes introduce mechanical defects at edges of the ICs which can generate cracks in the dielectric layers at the die periphery that can propagate through the dielectric layers towards the IC. Crack propagation is worse in dielectric layers under tensile stress, as commonly found in low-k dielectrics. Scribe seals provide some resistance to crack propagation into ICs, but may not be completely effective at terminating cracks.